Most Co workers pretty friendly, good discounts if you have a rewards card on top of employer discount, and guaranteed breaks. Not much fuss when asking for days off (unless your manager had a stick up their butt) good job for a teen or some one going into their first job.

Cons

No raises...unless you count when the minimum wage goes up. They purposely put you as a part time employee on paper but make you work full time but that means you don't qualify for benefits because your status is part time. Kinda shady if you ask me.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Raises to people who actually work their butts off. ..even fast food workers get raises and they do less than this job requires sometimes.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the local management team. The opportunities to learn new equipment has been really great. I have greatly enjoyed serving the customers.

Cons

The most challenging item has been trying to make productivity goals to the satisfaction of upper management with them adding more and more extra time consuming things for us to have to do without taking those things into consideration.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Everyone in upper management needs to run routes themselves for at least a good solid year of doing diagnostic and repair work and customer relations as field service/repair technicians so that they can better understand what exactly all we technicians are faced with on a daily basis when making process, procedure, and technician grading metrics.

Promotions are based for the most part on merit which allowed me to grasp a hold of opportunities along the way

Cons

The company needs to execute better new ideas in the market place and clear out some of the still old ways of thinking which in my opinion is choking the company in the current culture

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Welcome youth into the decision making process as to help target our younger audience in the retail world after all they are the majority of what roam our retail markets and spend their money in them more so than do older generations who tend to invest and purchase bigger ticket items such as automobiles and real estate.

Coworkers are really nice and help each other out. It's pretty easy to get a job there. You get to meet a bunch of different people.

Cons

employees are overworked and underpaid. Sometimes there aren't enough people working on the floor to get the job done. Supervisors yell at employees for not being able to finish even though there are only two people on the entire floor, besides cashiers

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Hire more employees or give employees a raise. Turnover wouldn't be as high

Very strong brand recognition with Kenmore, Craftsman, and Lands End products. Great opportunity to manage and develop large teams. Internal social media communication website is years ahead of other market leaders. High potential for career advancement if you can balance the metrics which are subject to change.

Cons

Leadership is not in line with long term growth. Metrics overbearing and for all the wrong reasons. The focus of the company is no longer on people. Customers are no longer valued unless they are rewards members. Company claims to invest in stores yet it's done in a very limited fashion with little support and follow up. Store morale is on a downward slope with the current vision being pressed with accountability yet no feedback/support to go along with it. Company is systematically self destructing by no longer renewing leases to stores.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Remember that you are a retailer first and focus on the customer and the sales experience. Quit making cashiers ask a million questions and forcing employees to ring up items on digital devices. Focus on streamlining the operations and ensuring the company is executing it's core 100% consistently instead of shifting gears every quarter. Change your power ranked scorecard to reflect true profitability and make it the bigger piece of the pie. Align your regional and store teams with a sales/customer service mentality and use the customer feedback from Facebook as a level setter. Have stringent follow up of your third party installers and delivery teams.

flexible hoursa few supportive coworkersa few other things, but I'm more unhappy than happy

Cons

Well, we get bad customers everywhere.

Too much pressure to get credit cards (30 minutes telling me how the other cashier is better at getting credit card apps, NOT to pay attention to what the customer is saying or if they seem to be in a hurry, GET CREDIT APPS ANYWAY) I can't, with a conscience, pressure people to get a credit card that I think is useless and deceiving. But management doesn't care. They'll just try to brainwash you into thinking it's a great program.

Poor management

Says they want feedback, but scoff at it

Favoritism (Worship one cashier and pressure other cashiers to be like the favorited)

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Try focusing more on bringing in people rather than harassing the few that DO come in to get credit cards and continue coming in.

Revamp the place, I hear customers complain all the time about how "the lighting sucks away at their soul" and "this place STILL looks like it was from the 90s"

Pay attention to the "employees vs managers" atmosphere that the managers are creating.

- You learn many job skills such as sales, customer service, and prioritizing conflicting tasks.- A good way to improve portrait posing.- Some customers are amazing to have conversations with during the photography and selling process.- Shifts are rarely boring and often fly by fast.

Cons

- For the work, minimum wage is unacceptable. Minimum wage is for jobs that do not require a skill and are single task focused. Photography does require a creative eye and skill.- Company cuts corners in customer service to save costs, which probably results in lower revenues. The studio is often overbooked and understaffed - resulting in inpatient customers. This also makes customers, especially on the weekend, feel like they are going through a bureaucratic DMV like process, rather than receiving a personal experience. This also increases the stress of the associate on duty coping with all the impatient customers.- Corporate often messes up the delivery of portraits from the lab to the studio, resulting in understandably frustrated customers. However, they often blame the associate working behind the counter.- Some parents behave worse than their children as customers. Sometimes they will blame the photographer if they can't control their own children for photos. A photographer can only do so much to get the children to cooperate.- Many co-workers and managers do not put attending their scheduled shifts a top priority. I was requested to cover someone else's shift often the last minute at least once or twice a week.- Equipment is old and often faulty. There are frequent computer crashes / malfunctions. Photography equipment is also frequently down.. Corporate is very slow in addressing these issues, even during the holiday season.- Passport printing paper is often out of stock, resulting in lost sales and frustrated customers.- Coupons that allow customers to walk out with a free portrait without paying a penny is often abused.- Many times, due to the customer load especially in the holidays, Associates cannot take any breaks or lunch.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Please experience a day as an associate during an overbooked and understaffed weekend day during the Holiday season or when a free coupon is about to expire. You will realize how corners have been cut in providing customers with the best experience. Also, fix the online booking system to allow appointments to be scheduled based on the number of associates. Also, don't give so many free items without a catch away.